Sesame seeds farmers in Yobe are celebrating bumper harvests as the price of the commodity shoots up to N32,000 per bag in the market.
Some farmers, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Damaturu, said that they had the best harvests this year compared to some years back.
Malam Ali Gaba, a farmer, said “most of us have good harvests this year unlike our experience of poor harvests last year.
“Its like we were paid back because of the poor harvests we suffered last year,” he said.
Kyari Musa, another farmer, said he no longer cultivated food crops because a bag of sesame seeds could buy three or four bags of maize or millet for his family’s needs.
“There are great value in Sesame seeds farming, especially when the harvests have good yields.
“A bag of Sesame seeds now costs between N30,000 and N32,000 making farming very profitable.”
Modu Bukar, another farmer, however said that farmers were forced to evacuate the produce home for fear of loosing it to thieves which had become very common recently.
“We are all harvesting the farms now and packing everything including the stalks home before threshing the seeds.
“Ordinarily, we cut down the stalks, allow it to dry, thresh the seeds before taking it home but now, you have to cut and take it home to dry before threshing or else, you risk losing everything,” Modu said.
NAN checks revealed that most of the farmers are now disposing the seeds to buy food crops and livestock as a form of investment from the proceeds of the harvests.
Manu Biriri, another farmer told NAN that prices of cattle, sheep and goats had slightly appreciated due to increase in purchase of livestock, especially by the Sesame farmers.
Meat vendors have increased price of meat following the jump in the prices of livestock.
A kilogram of meat which sold for N1,200 now sells at N1,400. (NAN)
